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Thursday, May 26, 2011

What a whirlwind of a day!!! Great progress was made today. We purchased tickets for the first of our two trips and got things settled with little man's passport. A surprise came when we purchased our tickets, they were 500.00 LESS than a quote we received a few days earlier.

Today is my dad's birthday. Happy Birthday Day! I love you and miss you! Sadly, there will be no celebration with him as he went home to Jesus nearly two years ago. I wish he were here, he always had sage advice to offer. When I was stressed, he helped me relax. When I was worried, he helped me trust the Lord. As these next weeks take us to unfamiliar territory, I am going to lean on the teachings of my father and trust the Lord.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

We are having one last fundraiser. As of today, we need just over ten thousand dollars to complete Elliot's adoption. We are out of the boat and it is all up to God.

Would you pray for God to provide our funding? We thought we had all of our money in place .... and then ... the cost of plane tickets went from 800 to over 1600 each and the IRS decided to hold our refund due to an adoption tax credit carryover from our 2008 adoption. Please pray that our return would be released and that this fundraiser would generate enough donations to cover the difference.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

This is another amazing testimony to the faithfulness, generosity and the love of my sister in Christ.

My friend Christi has a Pampered Chef business and offered to have a show for us. She is giving the profits from the show to Elliot. That is really generous, right?! Yep, it is!!!!

But there is more to the story... this is a story of sacrifice, of unconditional love, of the love of Jesus being shown, of walking the talk of Christianity, of putting your money where your mouth is, literally. Christi doesn't know it but Christ has used her to strengthen my faith. She is a shining example of Christ, her faith, her trust, her hope, her love and her support come directly from Jesus and I see Him in her.

Christi's husband has been unemployed from his full-time job for over 6 months. He just had a major surgery that had to be paid for out-of-pocket. Do you have any idea how expensive health care is? Christi started this business to supplement her family income while her husband continues to seek full-time employment. Christi's income from Pampered Chef contributes to their family's livelihood. Amazingly, in their time of need, they are giving. You can read more about Christi and her family here.

Please consider booking a show. I would love to see Christi's generosity come back to her tenfold! Even if you are far away, you could host an online show with Christi as your consultant.

This will take you directly to my show. If you are local, ship your orders to me and I will deliver them to you. If you are a far, you can have the orders shipped directly to your home! Thank you!

Make sure you check out all the PINK items here.. One dollar from the sale of every pink item will be donated to the American Cancer Society. You will get a double bang for your buck - you will help orphans and help fight cancer! WHOOT!!!

The show says it is ending on the 24th, which is a glitch. The show is ending on the 31st in time for all the May specials. Look at these great specials!

Friday, May 20, 2011

Thank you to all of the donors. Each donation has added to the next and this fundraiser has been hugely successful. It has raised nearly enough for one round trip ticket to Eastern Europe!!!!!! WOW!!!!

Today is the last day, if you would like to donate to this quilt giveaway, hurry :)

This is a beautiful quilt made with quality fabric and "warm and white" batting. It was machine quilted and hand bound.

Buy as many entries as you can :)

$10=1

$25=3

$50=8

$100 =20

Please share this on your blog, twitter, facebook, with your friends and even your enemies ;). When you have shared the giveaway three times, leave a comment below and you will get one entry.

DONATIOS ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE!!!!!!

The Chipin is expiring mid-day for some reason. Donations can be made to our RR support page once the chipin expires.

Friday, May 13, 2011

As you know, my sweet friend Mindy makes beautiful quilts and very generously offered to make a fundraising quilt for us. I knew the quilt would be a great fundraiser. What I did not know was the number of people that want to pay for a quilt.

We received a $300 donation and will send a custom quilt to that donor - THANK YOU!!

Mindy will soon be stocking her Etsy shop and if you do not win our giveaway, you will be able to buy one directly from her.

Until then .... don't forget about our fundraiser. We have about 5ish weeks left and are still about 10k short to fund Elliot's adoption and about 20K short if we want to bring home two additional children.

Please, please, please share this on your blog, twitter, facebook, with your friends and even your enemies ;). When you have shared the giveaway three times, leave a comment below and you will get one entry.

DONATIONS ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE!!!!!

The Chipin is expiring mid-day for some reason. Donations can be made to our RR support page once the chipin expires.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

We are over the moon!!!!!! This is a new level of excitement and makes this a little more real. Each step brings this adoption a little more into reality. Adoption is really like a pregnancy in that the more you progress the more real it seems. When I am pregnant, I can hardly believe it. This adoption seems so surreal at times, I often wonder if this is real. WOW, WOW, WOW~~~ someone pinch me please.

We sent our immigration approval to EE on Friday evening. For a day an a half the Fed Ex site said "Departed FedEx Location." It was driving me crazy, I just wanted the status to change, to know that if nothing else, it was inching along.

Finally ....

Upon checking this morning it says ... (remember they are several hrs ahead of us)

May 10, 2011 11:07 AM

Int'l shipment release

It looks like it has cleared customs and MAY be delivered early! Whoot!!!!

Friday, May 6, 2011

We received our "GOLDEN TICKET" on Thursday. The golden ticket AKA, I-171H is our provisional approval to adopt Elliot. It was the last piece of paper that we needed to send to Elliot's country for our dossier.

The I-171H had to be notarized and apostilled. We notarized it on Thursday night and apostilled it on Friday. Apostilling it meant a trip to Austin. The kids and I had the best trip, they were fantastic. Nearly eight hours in the car is a long time for little ones. They were so excited to be part of the final piece of paperwork. They were given the choice to go play with friends, but they chose to go be part of bringing Elliot home!

We arrived in Austin in no time flat ... and found this parking space .... prime - huh!?!

TA DA!!!!

All apostilled and ready to go!!!!!

Then it was back to Houston, with a stop at Fed Ex and the I-171H is on its way across the world!!!!

We did not think to take pictures before the sale started. About 4 or 5 hours into the sale we realized our oversight.

I really wish I had a before picture to share with y'all. It was ahhhmaaaazing. We had prayed for God to bless this sale. I had specifically prayed that we would receive so many donations that we would not be able to close the garage door. AND >>> ya know what >>> On Friday night we were stacking furniture and donations in our foyer.

In total we had 18 families donate to our sale. We are so very grateful and humbled. God provided in a mighty way!

We also had a number of friends come to help sell. Boy, without those friends, we would have been dead in the water.

I am amazed at how God put just the right people together. I don't know why I am amazed, after all God can do anything, right?! It is just when it happens to you it is hard to believe.

Thank you friends! We love you and cannot wait for you to hug Elliot. Rather than being tied to a crib, Elliot is going to get a hug from you!!!! He's gonna have a family and a home, something he has never know.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

With our approval comes a real need for some serious money. We had expected to have the adoption funded by now, but through a series of circumstances, that just is not the case. God is using this experience to humble me. I am NOT one to ask for help and I would much rather be the giver than the receiver. But ... here we are, with a huge shortfall, so we are jumping into fundraising and are looking for creative ways to fund the children's homecomings.

My sweet friend Mindy makes beautiful quilts and very generously offered to make a fundraising quilt for us. I cannot express the gratitude I feel in my heart for her generosity.

This is a beautiful quilt made with quality fabric and "warm and white" batting. It was machine quilted and hand bound.

You have 2 weeks to buy as many entries as you can :)

$10=1

$25=3

$50=8

$100 =20

The first person to donate $300 or more,

will receive a custom quilt! (full size or smaller) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please share this on your blog, twitter, facebook, with your friends and even your enemies ;). When you have shared the giveaway three times, leave a comment below and you will get one entry.

DONATIOS ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE!!!!!!

The Chipin is expiring mid-day for some reason. Donations can be made to our RR support page once the chipin expires.

Tailgaters

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